Refrigerating apparatus



Patented Jan. 15, 1935 PATENT OFFICE REFBIGERATIN G APPARATUS Lawrence A. Philipp, Detroit, Mich, assignor to Kelvinator Corporation, Detroit, Mich., a corporation of Michigan v Application May 3, 1932, Serial No. 608,942

3 Claims.

This invention relates generally to refrigerating apparatus and more particularly to refrigerating apparatus of the household type.

' Heretofore it has been customary when installing refrigerating apparatus on or in refrigcrating cabinets to mount the refrigerant low sidesuch as the cooling coils or chamber within the food compartment or in a cooling chamber of the cabinet and to mount the refrigerant high side such as the compressor and condenser below the bottom wall of the food compartment. Ordinarily it was difficult to install the machine in the cabinet or to remove it therefrom under these conditions. When placed at the bottom of the cabinet, the machine occupied space which might otherwise have been useful for cupboard space or for receiving foods and from an efliciency standpoint was objectionable. Due to the location and arrangement of parts, the entire machine could not be installed in or removed from the cabinet without making or breaking pipe connections, with the consequent chances of gas and oil escaping or dirt and moisture entering the system. This required skilled workmen. In fact such workmen had to leave the service station or factory to travel to and from installations and thereby consumed much time in just traveling as truck drivers back and forth between jobs. Consequently such workmen were unable to devote their entiretime to skilled work and were expensive to maintain.

With the present invention, however, the high and low sides are arranged side by side in a substantially common horizontal plane and may be readily installed within or removed from a cabinet without uncoupling or breaking any refrigerent connections or disassembling any of the parts I so that (a) refrigerant and/or oil cannot escape from the apparatus during installation or removal; (b) unskilled labor such as ordinary truck drivers may be used to make such installations or removals; and (c) skilled labor may remain in a central service station and devote its entire time to skilled service work.

Accordingly, one of the objects of my invention consists in a new and improved arrangement of a refrigerating system within a refrigerator cabinet.

Another object of the invention is to provide a refrigerator cabinet with a refrigerating system and to arrange for the ready removal of the system as a unitary structure from the cabinet in a new and improved manner.

Another object of the invention is to provide a refrigerator cabinet with a food storage compartment and a machinery compartment and to provide a refrigerant cooling element in the food compartment and a refrigerant condensing element in the machinery compartment, and to arrange for the ready removal of said elements and 6 machinery compartmentas a unitary structure from the cabinet, whereby the necessity of uncoupling the elements or removal of the cabinet panels and the like is avoided.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, wherein a preferred form of the present invention is clearly shown.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a vertical view in cross section of a refrigerator embodying features of my invention;

Fig. 2 is a view taken in the direction of the arrows 22 of Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is a top view in cross section, taken along the line 3-3 of Fig. 1, showing the arrangement of the refrigerating system within the cabinet; and I Fig. 4 is a side view in elevation of the refrigerating system removed from the cabinet.

Referring to the drawing and particularly to Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4, numeral 20 indicates in general a cabinet having a metallic lining member 21 formed to provide the inner walls of a food storage compartment 23 and preferably having a coating of vitreous enamel such as porcelain. The cabinet includes insulated walls including top wall 24, rear wall 25, side walls 26, bottom wall (not shown) and front wall 28. An outer metallic casing 29 is provided for enclosing the insulated side and front walls. The front wall 28 is provided with an opening 30 through which access to the compartment 23 may be had, and a movable closure member or door 31 to close the opening. The edges of the door opening are provided with finishing strips 33 which cover the edges of the inner lining 21 and the outer casing to provide a neat appearing finish. An opening 32 is provided in the rear wall 25 of the cabinet.

A removable unitary refrigerating system is arranged within the cabinet 20 near the top thereof and includes a refrigerant cooling element 35, and a refrigerant condensing element 36. The condensing element 36 is located within a machinery compartment 37 formed by a wall struc- 50 ture of some suitable insulating material and is provided with an opening 38 which registers with the opening 32 in the rear wall 25. The machinery compartment includes an upright wall 42, side walls 43 and a bottom wall 44. The upright wall 42 extends across the width of the cabinet between the front and rear walls thereof. The side walls 43 extend rearwardly and the bottom wall 44 extends through opening 32 in the rear wall 25 and rests on rear wall 25 to seal the opening 32 from the food storage compartment 23. The inner walls of the machinery compartment may be formed by a suitable metallic lining 45 and the outer wall formed by a metallic lining 46 preferably having a coating of vitreous enamel such as porcelain corresponding to the surface finish of the inner lining 21 of the food storage compartment. The outer wall also extends across the top of the food compartment.

It will be seen that the refrigerant condensing element and the refrigerant cooling element are arranged in substantially the same horizontal plane, the condensing element being arranged at the rear of the cabinet and the cooling element substantially in alignment therewith adjacent the front of the cabinet. The cooling element may be mounted in the food compartment on the upright wall 37 by any suitable means and is provided with a freezing zone in which may be inserted trays 49 for freezing substances such as water, and an air cooling zone 50 for cooling circulating air within the food storage compartment.

The condensing element comprises in general a motor-compressor unit 52 which may be of any suitable type preferably enclosed within a hermetically sealed casing, and a condenser 53. In the usual manner, gaseous refrigerant is withdrawn from the cooling element or evaporator 35 through conduit 54 by the compressor which compresses it and delivers the compressed gas through conduit 55 to the condenser 53 wherein it is liquefied. The liquid refrigerant is then delivered to the evaporator through conduits 56 and 57 after first passing through a high side float mechanism 58. Preferably the condenser is air cooled and for this purpose I have provided a fan 59 driven by a motor 60. This fan also circulates the air throughout the machinery compartment which air enters through the rear opening of the machinery compartment to remove heat generated therewithin.

As heretofore mentioned, the machinery compartment is open at the rear and in communication with the outer atmosphere through the opening 32 in the rear wall 25 of the cabinet. To insure a complete seal between the food storage compartment 23 and the insulated machinery compartment 36, gaskets 64 and 65 of any suitable material such as rubber are provided. As shown these gaskets may be carried by the rear edges of the side walls 43 and by the bottom wall 44. When the refrigerating system is mounted in operative position in the cabinet, the gaskets 64 and 65 provide a tight fit betwen the rear wall 25 and the food storage compartment.

In many instances it has been found desirable to provide a refrigerating apparatus in which the refrigerating system is removable through a top wall of a cabinet. In this present instance I have provided an opening in the top wall 24. The opening 80 is closed by an insulated removable closure member 82. The movable closure member 82 includes a wooden frame 85 which carries a sealing member 86 on its lowermost edges for sealing the food compartment from the exterior of the cabinet. On the inner side of the closure member 82 is the liner 46 and on the outer side is a metallic cover 90. Interposed between the liner 46 and cover 90 is a slab of insulating material 92 which extends rearwardly across the top of the cabinet as far as the rear portion of upright wall 42. Thus the top of the machinery compartment consists only of the cover 90. If desired, however, the insulating slab may be extended across the top of the machinery compartment. As shown, however, there is considerable head room in the machinery compartment and the bottom wall 44 need not be disposed as low in the cabinet as it would be'if the machinery compartment had a thick insulated top wall.

In order to remove the refrigerating system without disconnecting the conduits 54 and 57, I have joined the side wall 43, bottom wall 44 and upright wall 42 to the removable closure member 82. Thus when it is desired to remove the system all that is necessary is to move the closure member 82 upwardly and the entire refrigerating system and the walls which provide the machinery compartment are removed through the opening 80 in the top wall of the cabinet. With this construction the symmetrical appearance of the cabinet is maintained and the arrangement of the refrigerating system within the cabinet is such that it occupies a minimum of space with the result that a maximum of food storage space is provided.

Although only a preferred form of the invention has been illustrated, and that form described in detail, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention or from the scope of the appended claims.

What I claim as my invention is:

1. Refrigerating apparatus comprising, in combination, a cabinet having substantially rectangular side walls and a removable stepped wall structure forming the upper part of the cabinet, said removable wall structure being removable upwardly from the cabinet and including an upright insulated wall extending across at least a portion of the cabinet between the front and rear walls thereof, a horizontally disposed insulated portion extending from said upright wall toward the front of the cabinet, and a horizontally disposed, insulated portion extending from said upright wall toward the rear of the cabinet, said forwardly extending portion forming at least a portion of the top wall of the cabinet, a refrigerant cooling element disposed immediately below said forwardly extending portion, a refrigerant condensing element mounted on the upper part of said rearwardly extending portion on substantially the same horizontal plane as said evaporating element and below said forwardly extending portion, conduits interconnecting said elements, and a cover associated with said removable wall structure and cooperating with said rectangular side walls to enclose said condensing element, said elements wall and wall structure being removable as a unit without disconnecting the conduits from said elements.

2. Refrigerating apparatus comprising, in combination, a cabinet having substantially rectangular side walls and a removable stepped wall structure forming the upper part of the cabinet and including an upright portion, a lower horizontal portion extending toward the rear of the cabinet, and an upper horizontal portion extending toward the front of the cabinet, a cooling element disposed below said latter position and carried by said wall structure, a condensing element carried by said lower horizontal portion on the opposite side of said upright wall, conduits extending through said wall structure to operatively connect said elements, and a metallic cover extending across the top of the cabinet and above said elements, said cover being associated with said removable wall structure and being arranged to provide a substantially flat surface across the top of said cabinet, said wall structure and elements being bodily removable from said cabinet as a unitary structure by upward movement from said cabinet without disconnecting said conduits.

3. Refrigerating apparatus comprising, in combination, a cabinet having substantially rectangular integral side walls and a removable wall structure at the top of the cabinet, said wall structure including an upright insulated wall extendin across at least a portion of the cabinet between the front and rear walls thereof, a horizontally disposed, insulated portion extending from said upright wall toward the front of the cabinet, a

horizontally disposed, insulated portion extending from said upright wall toward the rear of the cabinet, and vertically disposed insulated wall portions cooperating with said uprightwall and said rearwardly extending portion to provide a machine compartment, a refrigerant condensing element disposed in said machine compartment below the top of the cabinet, a refrigerant cooling element secured to said removable wall structure on the opposite side of said upright wall on substantially the same horizontal plane as said condensing element and conduits extending through said wall structure to operatively connect said elements, said removable wall structure and elements being bodily removable from said cabinet as a unitary structure without disconnecting said conduits by vertical movement from said cabinet.

LAWRENCE. A. PHILIPP. 

